The below description will discuss newspapers as a primary example of publications. However, it should be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to newspapers, but instead extends to other publications, printed or digital, including but not limited to books, periodicals, tabloids, etc.
Newspaper companies (and other providers of printed publications) typically circulate a large number of identical newspapers for a given time period, e.g., morning, evening/late, daily, bi-weekly, weekly, bi-monthly, monthly, etc., or provide a certain number of identical editions. Such production methods are known as static methods where all of the first, second and additional pages printed are identical to all other first, second and additional pages. Static printing methods are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,945,923, issued on Sep. 20, 2005, and entitled “Method for Producing a Newspaper,” which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Once a newspaper's content has been determined, for example after receiving final content from a newspaper's head office, printing plates are generated using offset printing devices, e.g., computer-to-plate or computer-to-film devices, which allow for a large number of identical newspapers to be generated. Newspaper printing techniques that employ printing plates are described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0238817, published on Oct. 6, 2006, and entitled “Method and System for Printing Management,” which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. Once the plates are fabricated and the newspaper pages printed, the newspaper pages are subsequently assembled, e.g., folded at a folding station, to form a section or a complete newspaper and are dispatched for delivery to subscribers.
Due to traditional newspapers being printed in high quantities, printing methods that use printing plates are economically acceptable. However, newspaper subscribers may prefer to receive specific information that may not be provided in a traditional newspaper, or that may be buried within a traditional newspaper and thus are difficult to find. Providing news content to subscribers according to each of their preferences is not possible (or not economically feasible) when using printing plate technologies due to the difference in content or formatting and the static nature of printing plates.
While digital printing methods have been used to print variable content in general, there is room for improvement with regard to how content is provided.